Except for Their Eyes
by fananicfan
Summary: Can't tell you much about this one...it'll give it away. I wrote this as a challenge piece at another site. It's written in a style other than my norm, but it turned out to be my most popular one-shot story to date. I hope you enjoy it, too!


JANAURY 2009 Challenge – Except for their Eyes

By: fananicfan

AN: This story is different from what I usually write. I hope you enjoy it. I'd tell you more, but it would spoil the story.

I borrowed characters from JAG, but the story is mine.

EXCEPT FOR THEIR EYES

David had gone with his father to get his haircut just four days ago, so when he ran his hand over his head, the top wasn't soft. Instead, the fresh crew cut made his black hair poke at the palm of his hand. It felt prickly like the hair on his dad's face when he hadn't shaved for a couple of days, for instance, when his family had gone camping last summer before he'd started kindergarten.

He wished that he was camping now. He wished that he was anywhere else… anywhere except here in the school office. He'd made Amanda cry, and his teacher had brought him to the principal's office to be punished.

David was a mature young man for five years old, and he was pondering if the sinking feeling that he was experiencing inside was the way that his dad's clients felt while they were waiting to see the judge.

He wished that the principal would hurry up and call him into her office. He wasn't going to deny the charges. He knew that it wouldn't do him any good if he did. There were too many witnesses – almost the whole class. He'd just throw himself on the mercy of the court. He'd admit that he'd made a mistake. He'd say that he was sorry. He hoped that it would be enough to keep from getting too harsh a punishment.

David would swear that he'd been sitting here for hours, but it couldn't have been that long because the school bell would've have rung, signaling the end of the school day.

******

Sitting two chairs down from David was Amanda. When the teacher had brought them both to the principal's office, she wouldn't let them sit next to each other because, when David had made her cry, she'd retaliated by hitting him.

Five year old Amanda was sitting with her hands clasped, resting them in her lap and staring down at her shiny new black shoes that her mother had bought for her last night. She liked spending time with her mother, but she really liked it when she got her father all to herself. At least once a month, her daddy took her, just her and not her brother, out for the day.

Amanda's mother had brushed her hair back and pulled her brown wavy lengths of hair into a ponytail this morning. Though she was no longer letting them fall, her eyes glistened from the moisture of unshed tears. She wouldn't cry anymore. She'd be strong like her mother.

She didn't know why she'd cried anyway. That wasn't completely true. She was missing her daddy. He was away on a business trip. He'd gone out of town before, but this was the first time that he'd gone away since she'd started kindergarten. To make matters worse, it was Thursday, and she didn't think that he was going to get back for their father /daughter day on Saturday. She didn't know if she was more sad or angry that she wasn't going to get her day with her father.

******

Mac pulled into a parking space. She was here to pick up her husband. Thank god, he was coming home today.

He'd been gone for four days. He'd been gone before, but, this time, things hadn't gone well at home while he'd been away. If it had been just their son behaving oddly, she would've chalked it up to him missing his father because he was a mini version of his dad, except for his eyes. He had her eyes. However, with their daughter also behaving out of character, and neither one of them willing to talk to her about what was bothering them, she was anxious to pick up her husband, pick up their children from school and get their life back in order.

She got out of the car and headed for the terminal. She was running late, and his plane should be landing in three minutes if it was on time. She sighed in relief as the automatic door at the terminal building opened for her. It wasn't going to be long now before things would be back on track.

Feeling that resolution of her rocky home life was only a few minutes away, she was already breathing a little easier as she began to make her way to the monitor displaying the flight status of arrivals to see if his flight was still listed as being on time, but a booming voice calling her name caused her to stop moving.

"Mac!"

She knew that voice well. His plane must have arrived early. She turned and, the moment her eyes made contact with his, the weight that she'd been carrying on her shoulders for the last four days began to feel like less of a burden.

Mac moved towards him, anxious to be in his arms, to hug him. It had been a rough four days, but, together, they'd be able to find out what was bothering their children, and life would get back to the hectic, but wonderful world that they'd had before he'd left.

He saw her coming and dropped his bag to accept her with both arms. They'd had a fight on Sunday night. It wasn't really a fight, more of a difference of opinion that had gotten out of hand, and he'd left on Monday morning without them having reached an agreement on the subject. Even if they'd only agreed to take up the topic of having another child after he'd returned from this trip, he'd have slept better while he was away.

Mac had taken his resistance to having another child as some kind of slap in the face…like, by not wanting another child, it meant that he didn't want her. They'd had a wonderful long weekend away by themselves just six weeks ago for their sixth wedding anniversary. They'd hardly left their room, so how, after that, could she think that he didn't want her? The concept was beyond his limits of understanding.

Seeing her now and remembering the hurt look in her eyes that night had him not caring if he understood her correlating a child with his desire for her. He just didn't want to ever hurt her feelings like that again.

As Mac came into his arms, her arms went around him at his waist, and his arms wrapped around her until their bodies made contact.

He applied a kiss to the top of her head before speaking, "Mac, I hate that we had a fight before I left."

"Me, too," she said. It comes out audible but muffled, because she has the side of her face pressed so firmly against his chest.

"I'll try to be more sensitive and you try and be less about the subject, and we'll talk about having another child again tonight after we've put the kids to bed, okay?"

Mac lifted her head and looked into her husband's eyes. "You try to be more sensitive and I won't have to be less. "

"You can be difficult sometimes. You know that?" he said with a broad smile, and she knew that he was teasing her.

"Now that you've figured that out, are you sorry that you married me?" she asked.

"Not for one moment do I regret nor question that marrying you was the best decision that I ever made." He was rewarded with a tiny smile for that answer. "I love you and our family, and I have no desire to be anywhere else – with anyone else.

"You may not feel that way when I tell you're how strangely your children have been acting while you've been gone this time."

"My children? I thought they were our children."

"When they're their usual angelic selves, they're mine. When they're misbehaving, somehow, it's got to be your fault, so it's your problem, and that makes them yours until you've corrected the situation."

"I see," he said with a chuckle. "Well, tell me about my children in the car. I'm anxious to see them, so we should pick them up from school and surprise them that I'm home. Then I'll talk to them when we get home and "fix" them for you."

After a quick kiss on the lips, they released each other. He picked up his bag and took his wife's hand, and they strolled to the car to go pick up their children.

******

Mrs. Walters, the principal of West Cove Academy, a private school, hung up the phone before rising from her chair to call the children into her office.

The heavy oak door of to the principal's office seemed to be opening in slow motion to David and Amanda. Their only thought was that it was time for them to face the consequences of their actions.

The door finally opened, and Mrs. Walters said in a firm voice, "David and Amanda, please come in."

David got up from his chair and stood up straight. Being above average in height for his age, he looked very grown up as he walked towards her office with his head held high.

Mrs. Walters smiled as the little boy seemed to be stepping in time, like he was marching into her office. In her mind, she reasoned that, having met David's Navy captain father, it didn't seem all that unusual for David to walk in that manner.

With equal parts of beauty and grace, Amanda stood and ran a hand over her dress to smooth out a wrinkle that had been created by sitting down for the last ten minutes. With her dress to her liking, she lifted her head and began to walk with a silent strength and dignity that one would normally associate with a much older girl, a woman really.

Mrs. Walters wasn't fazed by Amanda's poise. She'd met Amanda's mother. Amanda was just a perfect little replica of her mother, except for her eyes. She'd definitely gotten those expressive eyes from her father.

With both children in her office, she moved from in front of the door. After she'd closed the door, she moved behind her desk and took her seat before she said a word to either of them.

"I'm sorry that I kept you waiting so long, but I was calling your parents."

"You didn't talk to my daddy, because he's gone," Amanda blurted out angrily in her second uncharacteristic public display of emotion today.

"No, I didn't talk to your father, but when I spoke to your mother, she said that she was on her way here to pick you up from school today. She should be here in a few minutes so that we can all talk about what happened today."

"There isn't much to talk about. I made her cry, and she got mad, so she punched me in the arm," David explained.

"I see," Mrs. Walters said, taking in the body language of both of the children before saying any more. "Amanda, did you know that our school has zero tolerance when it comes to violence? Do you know what that means?"

Tears were pooling in Amanda's eyes, and they started to burn as she fought to keep them from falling again. She couldn't think, so she just shook her head, indicating that she didn't know what it meant, though she suspected that, if she hadn't been concentrating on keeping her tears at bay, she might have been able to think and answer the question.

"It means that anyone who threatens to or hits someone is to be suspended or expelled from school."

"Don't kick her out of school. I started it by making her cry. I should be kicked out of school, not her," David said in Amanda's defense.

"I see, very noble, but the rules say that there's nothing that you can say that would make it acceptable for her to hit you," Mrs. Walters explained in a matter of fact tone. "You know what?" Mrs. Walters asked the children as she stood up, but neither one of them said a word in response.

Mrs. Walters waited until she'd made it around to the front of her desk before speaking again. "Your teacher told me that the two of you are very good students, but that all this week, you've been having problems paying attention and getting your work done on time, so I think that something has been bothering you for a while and that maybe your fight with each other has more to do with that than anything that happened today." Mrs. Walters paused for a moment before following a hunch by asking, "Amanda, when did your father leave on his business trip?"

"He left on Monday morning, Mrs. Walters," Amanda answered.

Knowing that her father was in the Navy, Mrs. Walters had to ask the obvious question. "Your father is in the Navy. So, this isn't the first trip that he's gone on, is it?"

"No," Amanda answered softly.

"Then, can either of you tell me what makes this time different than the other times that he's been gone?"

Both of the children shook their heads. They weren't talking anymore. What Mrs. Walters needed to try to figure out was if they weren't talking because they didn't know or because it was so big that they just couldn't bring themselves to say it out loud…make it real.

Mrs. Walters stood there and watched as the façade that David had been keeping up started to crack.

"David, is there something that you want to tell me?" she asked.

"No, ma'am," he answered, but the cracking of his voice told her that he was on the brink of breaking down.

His sister reached for his hand. "We have each other, no matter what."

"Don't you think that your father is coming home?" Mrs. Walters asked the twins.

Both children just shrugged their shoulders, not responding verbally, but Mrs. Walters thought that it spoke volumes.

Mrs. Walters was about to ask some more probing questions to confirm her suspicions when her intercom came to life.

She moved quickly around to the side of the desk in order to answer her secretary's call.

Just a minute later, she was hanging up the receiver. The news that her secretary had told her was better than she'd hoped for. Both of their parents were here.

"I need to step out for a moment, but I'll be back in a couple of minutes, and we'll figure this all out, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," the Rabb twins said in unison, bringing a smile to Mrs. Walters' face.

******

Mrs. Walters stepped out of her office and waited until her door was closed before greeting the twins' parents. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Rabb."

"Hello, Mrs. Walters," the concerned parents responded in unison, bringing a smile back to Mrs. Walters' face. Those children were the spitting image of their parents. The only exception was their eyes. Amanda had her daddy's green eyes, and David had his mother's brown ones.

"I'm glad that you're both here because I think that the twins' spat today had more to do with you, Mr. Rabb, than with anything that happened at school."

"What makes you say that, Mrs. Walters?" Harm asked.

Mac moved her gaze from Mrs. Walters to Harm and then back to Mrs. Walters, waiting for the answer to his question.

"A correlation of information: things that I got from their teacher and from speaking with the children. Their teacher said that they haven't been as attentive and focused in class this week. When Amanda mentioned that her daddy was on a business trip, I asked when he'd left. When her response was on Monday morning, things started to come together. However, when the children told me that you might not be coming home, that's when I figured out that they've been trying to deal with this sadness all week and that today's incident was them acting out their fear more than anything that either one of them said or did today."

Harm looked at Mac. "Where would they get the idea that I wasn't coming home?"

Mac shook her head. "I don't know."

"I need to talk to them," Harm said, the worry evident in his voice.

"It's past time for me to check the halls and grounds….please use my office while I'm gone to see if you can figure this out. I'll come back to check on you in a bit."

"Thank you," the Rabbs said in unison to Mrs. Walters before scurrying towards her office door to see their children.

******

Harm opened the door to Mrs. Walters' office and peered around it. "Anyone got a hi or hug for their dad?" he asked.

Both children leaped off the chairs that they were sitting on at the sound of their father's voice. "Daddy," they said as they ran to him.

Harm then squatted down to greet his children. As they got close enough to him, one of his arms went around each one of them, pulling them in close to him before placing a kiss on the cheek of his daughter first and then his son's cheek before giving them one more squeeze.

Mac was left feeling a little left out, but, under the circumstances, she thought that it was best to let Harm take the lead on this investigation and didn't say a word as she watched her husband and children share a joyful reunion.

Harm loosened his grip on the twins and pulled back enough to be able to look them in the eye.

"Do you know why you're in the principal's office?" Harm asked.

"Because I made Amanda cry," David answered shyly, not wanting to have his dad angry with him, but knowing that he needed to tell the truth.

"And because I hit him for making me cry in front of the class," Amanda added, confessing to her part in their crime spree.

"Well, that's the actual crime, but Mrs. Walters thinks that, even though you're guilty of doing those things, that something was bothering you that made you react differently than you usually would."

"You mean that we can plead extenuating circumstances before we get our punishment?" David asked.

"Exactly," Harm proudly said to David. David was going to be a fine lawyer some day, he thought to himself for a moment before getting back to the issue at hand. "Mrs. Walters said that you two thought that I wasn't going to come home. Is that true? Did you think that Daddy wasn't going to come home?"

He didn't get a verbal response, just two heads giving him an affirmative nod.

"Where did you get the idea that I wasn't going to come home?"

To them, it didn't matter anymore where their idea had come from because they'd apparently been wrong. He was home and, more importantly, he'd come here with their mother, and she looked happy again.

Harm knew that he'd get an answer, but it might take a few minutes, so he wrapped an arm firmly around each one of his children and stood up. "Come on. One of you needs to tell me or your mother why you thought that I wasn't going to come home," he said as he moved towards the couch in the room with his children in his arms.

He sat down on the couch with a child sitting on each thigh, facing each other.

"David?" Harm said his name like a question in that tone that said to David that he wasn't going to let them get away with staying silent on the topic. "Amanda?" he said in the same tone, knowing that one of them would tell him what he wanted to know.

"Because you and Momma had a fight before you left, and Momma didn't eat breakfast with us after the man came to pick you up," Amanda explained.

"And when Momma came out of her room to take us to school, we could tell that she'd been crying while she was in her room," David added.

Mac felt her insides turn to jelly. Now she was going to have to tell Harm tonight, something that she wasn't looking forward to doing. She loved her children, but sometimes she had to wonder if they were too smart for their own good because they picked up on things that she doubted that most children their age would.

"First, I want to tell you that your mom and I didn't have a fight. We were having a discussion about something very important and we had a difference of opinion on the topic, but we don't have to agree on everything. The two of you don't agree on everything. Amanda's favorite color is red, but David's favorite color is green. Two people can like different things or have different opinions on something, but still love each other."

"And you love Momma?" Amanda asked with eyes that mirrored her father's.

"Very much, and I love you and your brother very much, too," Harm replied, preparing to address the other part of their concerns, but before he could say more, he saw Mac lowering herself to the children's level.

Mac knelt down in front of her family. "And I love all of you, and you have to know that your daddy would never just leave and not come home."

Mac had tears in her eyes, wondering, when she told him the news, if he'd leave her. In case he did leave, she wanted to word what she was about to say carefully so that, if he did, her children wouldn't think that she'd lied to them.

"I know that some of the kids in your class have parents who don't live together anymore and, if that ever happened between me and your dad, you need to know that your daddy would never ever stop coming home to see you. He loves you too much not to see you as much as he can."

Harm was worried by Mac's carefully worded speech to their children. Had he upset her enough that she wanted to leave him? If he had, why had she acted like she'd missed him so much at the airport? He decided to focus on his children for now and talk to Mac when they got home.

He wouldn't have had time to ask her about it anyway because, before he could form another thought, Mrs. Walters returned to her office.

******

When Mrs. Walters returned, Harm explained why their children had been upset all week. Mrs. Walters said that, though the school had a zero tolerance policy on violence that carried a mandatory suspension, the length of time wasn't specific, so she suspended Amanda for only the remainder of the day, even though, by that point in the day, it meant only minutes.

Mrs. Walters also asked that the children apologize to each other.

"I know that I hurt your feelings and I'm sorry. I'll try to be more sensitive, and you try and be less," David said to his sister.

"You try to be more sensitive, and I won't have to be less," Amanda replied before her parents sternly said her name, indicating that it wasn't an acceptable response. "I'm sorry I hit you," she then added.

Harm and Mac smiled at each other. Their children were so much like them.

The children seemed to be back to their usual happy selves as the foursome left the school. However, their parents were each struggling with internal turmoil.

Mac was struggling with how she should tell Harm that she'd been so upset this past Sunday because, though she'd asked him if he wanted to have another child, it was already too late. She'd been hinting around, not wanting to blurt out the fact that she was pregnant.

At the airport, Harm had thought that Mac had had time to think over what he'd said about having another child not being a good idea, understood that it had nothing to do with his desire to be with her and had forgiven him. However, after the way she'd spoken to the children in such a carefully worded way, he was worried that she'd changed her mind. He'd made good points, hadn't he? Like the one about them wanting to go to DisneyWorld when the school year ended. The twins were now old enough to ride most, if not all of the rides, and a baby would make the trip less fun for at least one of them because someone would have to stay with the baby while everyone else went on a ride. Was she going to give him a chance to explain his perspective one more time? Was she going to give him an ultimatum – a baby or she was leaving - or was she just going to tell him that she was leaving him?

It was Mac who suggested that they spend some time together as a family, doing something fun. Harm quickly agreed, in part to delay the talk that he knew that he and Mac had to have before the end of the day, and in part to give his children one more day of family time because today might be the last time it happened.

******

Harm was tense as he waited for Mac to come into their bedroom. He was anxious to get this talk over with – to know where he stood with her, but, at the same time, he knew that he wasn't prepared for her to leave him.

He began to toe off his shoes. He'd been away for four days. He'd slept in a strange bed for the past three nights. He was going to sleep in his own bed tonight - no matter what she had to say.

He was unbuttoning his shirt when Mac came into their bedroom.

"Harm," she said, but her voice cracked, and she had to take the time to swallow down her nerves before she could continue.

Harm seized the opportunity to speak. "Mac, I know that I really upset you before I left."

He was quickly closing the distance between them, and Mac was afraid to let him get too close. Her breasts were sensitive and, if he started to touch her, he'd figure it out. She had to tell him, even though she'd love to have one more night of being with him before he left her.

Mac put her palms against his chest. "Stop, right there. I know what you're going to do, but I have something that I have to tell you before you kiss me."

"I had a little more than kissing on my mind," he said seductively.

"You may have a change of heart when I tell you why I got so upset when you said that you didn't think that having a baby was such a good idea." He put his hands on her hips and looked her in the eye. "I asked about us having another baby because I was hoping that you'd say something like, 'sure let's get started on it right now,' and then I could say that we didn't have to work on it because we got it right when we went away for our anniversary. The going crazy and talking about you not wanting me had more to do with hormones than anything based on reality." Mac stopped talking to see if he was processing what she was saying or if she'd have to spell it out for him.

"Are you telling me that you're pregnant?" Harm's voice was a mixture of surprise and confusion.

All Mac could do was nod and, then to her surprise, he slipped his hands off her hips and around behind her, picking her feet up off the floor and spinning her around.

"We're having a baby," he said excitedly.

"You sound happy," Mac said in confusion.

"I am." He put Mac's feet back on the floor and kissed her passionately.

When the kiss came to a natural close, Mac looked into his eyes. "But I thought that you didn't want another baby."

"That's before I knew that I was going to be a father again." Mac was confused, the look in her eyes telling him so, so he continued to explain. "Mac, you were asking me if I wanted another baby. You have to admit that, logically, it doesn't make much sense to have a baby now, but saying that we're going to have a baby is totally different. I love you. A baby created from our love for each other is a gift, and logic doesn't apply. I'm very happy to be a father-to-be again. Are you feeling okay? You and the baby are okay, right?"

"Yes, we're fine, especially now that I know that you want us both."

"Then, what do you say that I finish what I started and show you how much I want you?" he asked with a full-blown flyboy smile in place.

"Sounds good to me," Mac said before Harm began to kiss along her jaw line, working back to her ear, knowing that a nibble on her earlobe and a kiss just below her ear would have her ripping his clothes off and giving him a proper welcome home.

*****

Seven months later, Harm and Mac welcomed another set of twins: a boy, a carbon copy of his mother, and a girl, a little version of her dad - except for their eyes.

THE END


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